The Ohio State football team won the only title it could - the Big Ten Leaders Division- in this season under NCAA suspension, and it appears the players will have something to show for their 12-0 effort.

Bob Hunter, The Columbus Dispatch

The Ohio State football team won the only title it could — the Big Ten Leaders Division— in this season under NCAA suspension, and it appears the players will have something to show for their 12-0 effort.

Program insiders say athletic director Gene Smith has authorized commemorative rings for the Buckeyes, who completed the sixth unbeaten, untied season in school history. Whether the rings will rival those awarded to Big Ten championship teams of recent years remains to be seen.

Coach Urban Meyer has said that the 2012 team will have a large commemorative spot somewhere in the display areas of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center so that a team that had little more to play for than pride will never be forgotten.

Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel had no idea he would be hoisted onto the shoulders of his former players at an on-field ceremony honoring the 2002 national championship team last week — and there was nothing he could do about it.

Former defensive tackle Kenny Peterson and offensive tackle Mike Stafford gave him the lift, and Tressel told the Cleveland Ohio State Alumni banquet that linebacker Cie Grant and defensive back were right there with them. “They never listened to me when they played and they didn’t listen to me when I told them, ‘Put me down,’ ” Tressel said.

He told Bill Livingston of The Plain Dealer that he never expected such a rousing greeting.

“It obviously was one of those surreal moments,” he said. “They were, like 20 years old then, now they’re 30, you get the chance to meet their spouses, see pictures of their families, hear them tell stories about what they remember and what they took away from their experience.”

When asked about having his rules violations that caused the current team to be banned from a bowl, Tressel said, “Obviously, you feel terrible. You always feel regrets for anything that didn’t go the right way, especially when you were a part of it.”

The Forbes.com report that showed the Toronto Maple Leafs as the first NHL team worth $1 billion and listed the Blue Jackets’ value at $145 million, 28th in the league, included other information that seems illuminating in light of the lockout.

Forbes indicated that the sport’s three most profitable teams — the Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens — accounted for 83 percent of the league’s income, while 13 of 30 teams lost money. Forbes also estimated that the Leafs, Rangers and Canadiens earned a combined $171 million in profits in the 2011-12 season.The other 27 clubs lost a collective $44 million, a dramatic illustration of the gap between the rich and poor teams in the NHL.

University of Cincinnati coach Butch Jones is receiving attention as a possible candidate at various high-profile football openings, perhaps in part because the Bearcats are in the rapidly disintegrating Big East.

Jones, signed through 2017, has a $1.4 million buyout if he leaves UC before Jan. 1. Purdue and Tennessee are two places where Jones seems to be on the radar, and some reports suggest he is a possible candidate at Arkansas.

Oakland Raiders coach Dennis Allen said this week that he and his coaches have discussed looking at former Ohio State quarterback Terrell Pryor in some capacity. Pryor hasn’t been active for any of Oakland’s first 11 games and has yet to attempt a pass in a regular-season game since he joined the Raiders after being acquired in the supplemental draft before the start of the 2011 season.

“He’s working to get better, and he’s working to improve,” Allen said. “He’s gotten better as a quarterback. I don’t think any of us feel like he’s the finished product, including himself, but he has worked to improve.”

It’s not clear whether the Raiders are looking at Pryor at quarterback or in a package to take advantage of his size and speed. Pryor is listed as the third-team quarterback behind Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

Could the Cleveland Indians land big fish Nick Swisher in free agency?

It seems like a long shot given that the former Ohio State star turned down a $13 million option with the Yankees and is reportedly on the radar of the Boston Red Sox and others, but Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com noted that Swisher is among the high-priced free agents Indians officials have been “checking in on.”

Though it seems unlikely that anything comes of this, it shows that the Indians aren’t opposed to making overtures to free agents that could have a substantial impact on the club. Rosenthal noted that Swisher holds new Indians manager Terry Francona in high regard.

Michigan State tailback Le’Veon Bell grabbed the attention of fans and reporters on Twitter this week with a few cryptic tweets that suggested the former Groveport High School star might be thinking of skipping his senior season and heading for the NFL.

MLive.com reported his Wednesday night tweets: “Money Trees is the perfect place for shade” and “ I only chase dreams, never would I chase women or money.”

Bell later tweeted that everyone assumed he was talking about the NFL but added that “I haven’t even thought (about) it yet.”

Bell had 1,648 yards rushing this season, the second-highest single-season total in MSU history. He is ranked No. 12 among running backs by NFLDraftScout.com.

Artem Anisimov, who came to the Blue Jackets from the Rangers in the Rick Nash deal, joined his hometown team in Yaroslavl in Russia’s Continental Hockey League and is leading the team in scoring with 17 points in 24 games. Anisimov, 24, was born in Yaroslavl and began his career there.

An airplane crash in September 2011 killed 37 players, coaches and staff members of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv hockey team last year, and the Lokomotiv has tried to rebuild its squad with a mix of prospects and more experienced European and North American players.

The team is coached by Tom Rowe, a former Carolina Hurricanes assistant coach.

The Ohio State-centric website Eleven Warriors reported that Massillon Washington cornerback Gareon Conley, a consensus four-star prospect, has decommitted from Michigan and plans to visit Ohio State. He committed to Michigan in early March. The 6-foot-2 Conley is considered one of top defensive back recruits in the nation.

Now that the Cincinnati Reds have announced their intentions to move former closer Aroldis Chapman into the starting rotation, club officials seem to be mulling whether will to limit his innings next season. Chapman, 24, pitched 712/3 innings last season, and there’s a fear that a huge jump in innings could lead to injury.

Pitching coach Bryan Price told The Cincinnati Enquirer that he doesn’t “think there’s an absolute” figure for Chapman. “ Any time you have a young pitcher and he’s going to surpass his inning total, there’s going to be questions if he gets hurt,” Price said. “We can’t be scared of that.”

The other part of the equation is getting the left-hander to use pitches other than the fastball. He threw his fastball 88 percent of the time last year, according to FanGraphs.com. Only two starters threw their fastball more than 70 percent of the time.